Consumers hitting online psychics hard during tough economic times

Samantha Rose Hunt, 10th November 2008

Wired.com recently reported that the use of online psychic mediums has dramatically increased since the decline of the stock market.

Online psychics are claiming that as individuals lose faith in the economy, they are seeking the advice of psychics to determine what the future will hold. Consumers are asking what will happen to them financially in the coming months. People who would typically head to their psychic to ask about their love life, or friendships and family now want to know if they will lose their job, or score big in the stock world. Internet psychics all over are claiming to have seen an increase in their traffic following the first stock market crash.

A professor from the Columbia Business School told Wired that boom in superstition is predictable as far as responses go in times of trouble. Gita Johar has studied this phenomenon. If the future is uncertain, people turn to psychics," Johar says. Consumers tend to embrace the supernatural when confronted by stress, combined with uncertainty. "You have an illusion then that you can then control the outcome. People want the illusion of control."

Even though it can cost anywhere from $100 to $1000 for an online psychic for an hour, the rates have not deterred people nervous about the economy.

The psychics seem to be pointing out the obvious- that people won’t be shopping as much, and individuals will start to go back to basics.

The psychics also predict that as economic times get tougher, their business will do better. Though that hasn’t been the case for all online psychics as some are seeing the brunt of the recession themselves.